House speaker candidates have pulled out of a planned joint interview on Fox News next week just hours after it was announced amid fierce blowback from GOP lawmakers, the latest sign of how simmering tensions within the conference are boiling over as Republicans scramble to find a new leader following Kevin McCarthy’s stunning ouster.
Both of the leading Republican candidates for speaker – Rep. Jim Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise – backtracked from the plan to be interviewed jointly on Fox News with anchor Bret Baier from the Capitol next Monday after it had been announced by the network Friday morning. A third potential speaker candidate also said he would not participate in the forum.
A source familiar with the matter said Jordan and Scalise talked Friday and they agreed it wouldn’t be wise, so the forum is now off.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
House speaker candidates have pulled out of a planned joint interview on Fox News next week just hours after it was announced amid fierce blowback from GOP lawmakers, the latest sign of how simmering tensions within the conference are boiling over as Republicans scramble to find a new leader following Kevin McCarthy’s stunning ouster.
Both of the leading Republican candidates for speaker – Rep. Jim Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise – backtracked from the plan to be interviewed jointly on Fox News with anchor Bret Baier from the Capitol next Monday after it had been announced by the network Friday morning.
A source familiar with the matter said Scalise initially turned down the Fox News event but was told that two others – Jordan and Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern – had already committed to participate.
Fox News said in a press release Friday morning that Baier was holding an “exclusive joint interview” with Scalise, Jordan and Hern from the Capitol on Monday.
But the unprecedented speaker’s race that’s now following Kevin McCarthy’s removal in a floor vote has already proven to have an outsized element of outside influence even before the Fox event was floated – as former President Donald Trump has weighed in to endorse Jordan.
Moderate Republicans could play a key role in who ultimately wins the speakership because there is a contingent of GOP lawmakers uneasy about the conservative politics of both Jordan and Scalise and still angry at their hardline faction for ousting McCarthy in this week’s unprecedented floor vote.
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